It was Nadal's 61st career title and took him to eighth on the all-time list, passing Andre Agassi.

"I never had the chance to win here before. I had match points against Davydenko in the final a few years back," Nadal said on Saturday. He was runner-up to Russia's Nikolay Davydenko in 2010.

"I'm happy to start the season like this, it's the first time I have won a title in the first week of the year and it's a great way to start the season."

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Nadal took his record over Monfils to 9-2 with the Frenchman having achieved both his wins over the Spaniard in Doha, in 2009 and 2012.

It was a fine start for Nadal to a year in which he hopes to ward off Novak Djokovic's challenge for the world number one spot, and in a month when he hopes to regain the Australian Open title after a five-year interval.

His standard rose increasingly as the two-hour contest wore on, and his baseline rallying gradually became tenaciously indestructible, its peak coming in the fourth and fifth games of the final set.

This was when he made a crucial break of Monfils' serve, and followed it by recovering from love-40 down to saving five break points altogether and consolidate his match-winning lead.

That fifth game was punctuated by moments of drama when Monfils thought he had earned a sixth break back point, only for a line judge to call Nadal's over-hit backhand drive in.

TV replays confirmed that the shot was indeed out, but Monfils had missed his chance to appeal to the Hawk-Eye video replay system because he had continued the rally for another stroke.

"A title is always a title especially in the first week when I have never won before," added Nadal.

"I started to see some great play from Gael, and if he [continues to] play like this he has a good chance of reaching the top ten."

Two days ago Monfils defeated title-holder Richard Gasquet and altogether scored four express victories which did indeed suggest that for the Guadeloupe-born Frenchman the best, at the age of 27, may yet lie ahead.

"The crowd and the court here are unbelievable and I just feel very good here," said Monfils, who was playing his third final in Doha after losing to Roger Federer in 2006 and compatriot Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in 2012.